Mother of three says Brockton car dealer took her for a ride

Wednesday

Jeanine Casano is a wife, mom and Sunday school teacher, but she never imagined she would also be a victim of consumer fraud.

“We had great credit and now it’s ruined,” the 40-year-old Bourne woman said Tuesday.

Casano says her identity was stolen when she bought a minivan at a Brockton car dealership last September.

Now, Casano is fighting the dealership where she bought the 2006 Nissan minivan in September and the finance company that issued a loan in her name.

Casano said she paid $26,000 for the van she found at John Santilli’s Center for Automobiles after an exhaustive search for a family vehicle.

She had a certified check for the full price of the van, $26,000, but cashed it when the salesman called and offered to save her money if she paid in cash.

“He said there’s less paperwork,” Casano recalled.

The salesman, who no longer works at Santilli’s, could not be reached for comment and it could not be confirmed if he has been criminally charged, therefore The Enterprise is not publishing his name.

Casano said she has a receipt for the cash sale. Casano said she also has copies of credit applications for a $28,000 loan bearing her forged signature and filed with National Auto Finance, a division of GMAC.

The vehicle title, now in the possession of the credit company, and another state document were also forged, she claims.

Casano said she realized something was amiss when she received a bill for a car loan more than a month after finalizing the purchase.

When she called the salesman, she said he told her, “I took a loan out in your name to save you money,” and promised to void it within two days.

Two days have turned into four months, and Casano said neither the salesman nor the dealership has paid the loan.

Now, with a fraudulent $28,000 loan hanging over her head, Casano said she has to deal with collectors and the potential of having her van repossessed. She has also hired an attorney.

“Outrageous,” her attorney, Richard T. Davies of Sandwich, said in describing the case.

Davies said he was “assured by a supervisory employee of the dealership that they would fix the problem immediately, come hell or high water.”

That was weeks ago, and he said the loan remains unpaid.

“It could just be a misunderstanding,” said Mike Stoler, spokesman for GMAC.

According to Stoler, it is not uncommon for someone to borrow money for a vehicle and immediately repay the loan.

Stoler said his company will work with Casano to resolve the problem if her personal information has been compromised.

Dealership owner John Santilli, a longtime Brockton businessman, declined to discuss the case, but issued a written statement, citing an ongoing criminal investigation.

“The dealership extends its sincere apologies to Mrs. Casano for any inconvenience that may have been allegedly caused by the allegedly unlawful actions of a third party,” Santilli said.

Casano filed a complaint with Brockton police last week.

Meanwhile, she said she regrets the purchase.

“All I wanted was a vehicle to drive my children around,” Casano said. “I used to love the car, now I hate it. It feels dirty to me, it’s a dishonest deal.”